Fallout Equestria: Dracony Chronicles

“See, you keep telling me that, but you’ve got a revolver on your cutie mark.” Lazuli’s voice bounced along the walls of the hallway as she walked with Copper, smirking at the unicorn, who only managed a bashful blush.

“I’m tellin’ ya, I ain’t good with these!” Her magic jostled the holsters on her hips. “I mean sure, ‘m good for like, close-ish range, but I couldn’t hit a barn door with a balefire bomb if I tried.”

Lazuli rolled her eyes. “Revolvers are meant for closer ranges, Copper. It’s not a sniper.”

“Yea, but er…ya know.”

“…Sure, yeah, I know.” Lazuli snorted with a bit of a giggle, earning an embarrassed look from her partner. “But uh, is there anything I’m supposed to know about training these recruits? I know you told me what I’m doing, but like…any specifics?”

Copper thought for a second, her holsters gently jingling against her hips. “Mmm…well, none of ‘em are as flexible as you, ya know. So like…don’t try gettin’ em to do front flips ‘n stuff. I’ve never seen ya fight, but the Commander gave us a pretty good idea…”

“Well that’s just common sense.” Lazuli frowned.

“What I mean is…” Copper shrugged. “Don’t give ‘em too much at once. All they need is some hoof-to-hoof combat ‘n all that, got it?”

“Yeah, easy enough. Have you not taught them any?”

“I taught ‘em what I could, but t’be honest, I ain’t very good at it myself…I just taught ‘em simple stuff, like disarmin’ from close range or like…throwin’ ‘em, and stuff. For the most part I’m the one teachin’ ‘em about guns and aimin’ and such, I ain’t much of a close-fightin’ mare…”

Lazuli nodded, letting Copper walk slightly ahead of her when the doors opened. There were two parts to the training area – one was the indoor section, furnished with crudely repaired mats, various fake weapons and real ones (mostly non-lethal) as well as a few training dummies to practice close-quarters combat on. The second part was outdoors, just past the door at the back of the hall. This was where the shooting range was, as well as an area to practice aerial maneuvers for the few (and yet, surprisingly numerous) pegasi that resided at the base.

Copper slowly walked into the training room. Lazuli could see a few recruits standing near the training dummies, either practicing their kicks and punches or just waiting for the instructors to arrive. She counted six, but only two of them really caught her eye.

One was a stallion, one was a mare. The stallion was the kind of pony Lazuli had expected to see in a pre-war action film – he was bulky, tall, and definitely had the muscle to hit like a truck, but evidently he didn’t have the skill to back it up, if he was still practicing. An earth pony, as far as Lazuli could tell, he wore his mane in a bun – something that Lazuli thought was odd, but appropriate – and had dark red fur with a yellow mane and tail.

The mare was much smaller, about Lazuli’s size. She was a unicorn, not very muscular but certainly not unfit either. Her coat was a light creamy colour, and her mane was a mix of orange and yellow that matched her fiery orange eyes. Her entire aesthetic came off as hot – Lazuli quickly replaced that word in her head with fiery instead, knowing the implications – and she looked ecstatic to see Lazuli walk in.

The rest were mostly just plain earth ponies or unicorns with features that weren’t exactly stand-out. The mare, however, looked just about ready to explode. Lazuli questioned if she might actually have enough energy pent up to just combust into real flames.

“Afternoon, everypony.” Copper spoke, standing up straight to be more authoritative. “I’m sure y’all have noticed we’ve got one more instructor up here today.” She wrapped a hoof around Laz, pulling her closer. “This here’s Lazuli Cutter. Captain Lazuli Cutter. Y’all know her, I bet, since the Commander talks ‘bout her so much.”

The recruits wordlessly nodded. The fiery unicorn nodded with growing enthusiasm.

“Now, in case y’all haven’t heard, this here mistress of close-quarters combat-“

“Er, that’s…not the best way to put it.” Lazuli murmured.

“…This here…er…master,” Copper glanced at Lazuli, who winced a bit at being called a ‘master’ – something she was far from – but nodded anyway. “Of close-quarters combat, is gonna be teachin’ y’all a few things about somethin’ that don’t involve guns for once.” The gun-slinging unicorn looked around the group, who were in various stages of excitement ranging from polite smiles to the ludicrously extravagant expression of the mare near the front. “Any questions?”

Lazuli nearly leapt into the air out of shock when the cream coloured mare suddenly jumped in front of her, their noses nearly touching. “Is it really you?!” She squee’d excitedly, dancing from hoof to hoof. Some of the recruits nervously glanced at her with shifty eyes, unsure if enthusiasm of that level was allowed.

“Solar.” Copper said in a stern tone, and the mare jerked back to a standing position with a small squeak.

“A-apologies, ma’am.”

“Er…” Lazuli blinked. “It’s fine, Copper. But um…Solar, right?”

The mare’s eyes lit up even more – if that was possible – and she gasped. “Y-you know my name?! Th-that’s amazi-“

“I just told ‘er your name, hun…” Copper rolled her eyes.

“O-oh…uh…right. Um, yep! Solar Flare, new recruit into the Dusk Riders!”

Copper bit her tongue. “Riders of the Dusk, honey.”

“E-er, Riders of the- yeah!” Solar nodded happily. Clearly she had tons of energy, Lazuli thought to herself, but not the best brain she’d ever seen…

Lazuli cleared her throat, glancing around the room of recruits. “Yeah…well…yes, it’s really me.” She answered, hoping that would placate her, but almost certain it wouldn’t.

“That’s awesome!” Solar squealed, and a stern look from Copper made her calm herself down. “E-er, that- that’s uh…c-…cool, ma’am!”

“If you’ve got a lot of questions,” Lazuli said to Solar, “We can talk later. Right now there are probably others, okay?”

“Y-yes Lazuli! O-or, um, yes ma’am!” Solar saluted, then scrambled back into line.

Copper straightened herself again. Lazuli couldn’t help but notice that she was a lot more confident and less jokey when dealing with recruits, which she supposed was to be expected.

“Right.” Copper sighed. “Any other questions?”

Solar opened her mouth. Copper quickly added in, “From anyone else?”

Solar quickly shut her mouth. The stallion that Lazuli had regarded before spoke up, his voice just about as she expected – an air of confidence hidden behind a deeper tone. “Pardon me if this is out of line, Captain.” He began. “But why would we bother learning about hoof-to-hoof?”

Lazuli looked towards Copper, who simply glanced at her, since it was her question to answer.

Lazuli realized that she probably wasn’t the best mare to speak to recruits with any kind of motivation or confidence, but she would do her best.

“Well,” She began. “A gun can only do so much. If you’ve got a pony charging at you with a baseball bat and your gun’s still in its holster, you actually have a lot less time to react than you’d think. Even against another pony with a gun, what if you can’t get to yours?” She wiggled her wings gently, the metal surfaces shifting and scraping together. “Knowing how to disarm, how to fight, it can mean the difference between life and a bullet in your skull.”

She glanced back at Copper, who nodded to her as the Dracony began to walk forward. “Plus…” She looked around at all six of the recruits. “It’s good exercise. It encourages quick thinking. All sorts of benefits that don’t seem immediately obvious. I survived 200 years in the Wastes while barely using a gun at all. You need to know how to handle yourself if your guns aren’t a reliable option. And…this might be cliché, I dunno if it still is – your hoof never has to reload.”

Lazuli stopped in front of the stallion, who had about six inches on her in terms of height. “So that’s why you bother learning. Sure, you might not need it if you’re planning to stay in the base and do maintenance…but if you wanna go anywhere outside, it increases your survival chance by quite a bit.”

The stallion looked down at her as she finished, then snorted slightly, but seemed content with her answer regardless.

As Lazuli stepped back to stand beside Copper again, the southern mare spoke up once more. “So, everypony clear?” There was a collective ‘yes ma’am’ that followed, and Copper nodded. “We’re gonna start with the close-quarters training, then.” She looked to Lazuli, ensuring the Dracony was okay with it, before taking a few steps back. “All of y’all are expected to listen to what she tells ya. She’s a higher rank’n me, so listen up.”

Lazuli was glad that she had gotten at least a bit of an explanation on what to do from Tempest before she left the room this morning. “Alllllright.” She smiled widely, looking between the six ponies in front of her. “Huh…six, right? Perfect. I want all of you to get into partners and stand across from each other.”

At her command, they all slowly shifted along the mats until they were standing face-to-face a few feet apart.

Taking a moment to properly figure out what she was doing, Lazuli nodded, noting that Solar and the as of yet unnamed stallion were partnered up. “Alright. Now…” She lifted one hoof to her chin. “Hooves up, who here has ever been in a fight without a gun?”

Several hooves went up, aside from two.

“How many of them won a fight?”

One hoof went up, from the stallion who had asked the question earlier.

“Hrrh.” Lazuli nodded. “Okay. Well, that means that at least four of you have some experience with fighting, and that’s good.” She slowly walked down the row of ponies, looking at each one of them closely. The four that she had yet to pay attention to had been mostly silent, so she addressed them first.

“You.” She pointed at a slim earth pony with a dark blue coat. “Name?”

“E-erm, Silver, ma’am.” He replied.

“Okay, Silver.” She turned to face him, motioning for his partner to take a step back. “I’m gonna show you – and I want you all to watch this – how to counter a basic punch. I want everyone to pay attention, because this is what we’ll practice for the first little bit.”

Off near the back of the room, Copper couldn’t help but smile. She’s pretty good at this, she thought to herself. Like she’s done this before…

Cobalt had no idea where he was going, or what he would do when he got there. The two uncertainties seemed to conflict, but he was so exhausted that he was just thinking things to keep himself from fainting. Sweat dripped from the end of his chin onto the dirt below as he trodded along, his hooves dragging in the dirt. He lifted his head, but his vision was blurry and unfocused.

What does it even mean to die? Cobalt thought. That was a horribly depressing thought, but he wasn’t exactly sure what else he could think about. He hadn’t drank anything in over a day, and hadn’t eaten in even longer.

Cobalt was not a lucky stallion. His cutie mark was that of a wrench twisted around a lugnut, and alluded to his natural talent with engineering and machinery…but even with this supposedly divine-chosen ability, he was horrible at it. His natural life setting seemed to be on the ‘fuck you’ difficulty, with the knob broken off. Regardless of what he did out in the Wasteland, he messed it up somehow…and now he had been kicked out of yet another town for mucking up their water supply. It had been a mercy that they didn’t shoot him.

A hoof reached up to wipe at the sweat on his forehead, precious liquid that was escaping his body in an effort to keep him cool. He momentarily considered drinking it, but even he gagged at the idea. His black mane was matted down against his head, and his blue fur was soaked in the sweat, not allowing his movements to even feel the slightest bit comfortable.

He was fairly sure he was going East – or, maybe it was west. He really had no idea, but he could see what looked like a building far, far in the distance. His horn fizzled as he tried to reach into his saddlebags to take out his binoculars, but he couldn’t even get the clasp open. “B-by the sun…” Cobalt murmured, his voice hoarse.

Suddenly he felt something impact his chest with a dull thump and an uncomfortable pricking sensation. He looked down, his hoof reaching up to reveal a small dart embedded in his chest.

He felt his head swimming even more than before, and slumped to the ground, his head landing in the dirt. While he knew he should have been terrified, it allowed him to rest…and he was grateful for that, at least.